Para (Special Forces)
Para (Special Forces), commonly
known as Para SF, is the special operations unit of the Indian Army.
It is attached to the Parachute Regiment.
The unit's heritage stems from World War
II, with the creation of the 50th Parachute Brigade in October 1941.
9 Para SF, raised in 1966 as 9th Parachute Commando Battalion, is the
oldest among the eight Para SF units of the Indian Army.
The parachute units of the
Indian Army are among the oldest airborne units in the world. The 50th
Indian Parachute Brigade was formed on 27 October 1941, comprising the
British 151st Parachute Battalion, the British Indian Army 152nd Indian Parachute
Battalion, and the 153rd Gurkha Parachute Battalion.\ The
Parachute Regiment was formed from these and several other units in 1952.
In 1944, the 50th was allocated to the
newly founded 44th Airborne Division. In the post-independence
restructuring, India retained only one parachute brigade—the 50th. This brigade
consisted of three distinguished battalions personally nominated by the then
Commander-in-Chief, namely 1 PARA (Punjab), 2 PARA (Maratha) and 3 PARA
(Kumaon). During the Jammu and Kashmir operations of 1947-48 these
battalions distinguished themselves with glory in the battles of
Shelatang, Naushera, Jhangar and Poonch, and were awarded the respective
Battle Honours.
On 15 April 1952, the three battalions
serving with the Parachute Brigade were removed from their respective Infantry
Regiments to form the Parachute Regiment. Since then the Parachute Regiment has
grown to comprise ten battalions including Parachute (Special Forces)
battalions. In 1986, 8 PARA became 12 Battalion, Mechanised Infantry Regiment,
while 21 Maratha LI converted to PARA (Special Forces). During their short but
eventful existence so far, the regiment's battalions have had extensive
operational experience, and singular achievements, to speak of their level of
professionalism.
During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, an ad hoc commando
unit, named Meghdoot Force, consisting of volunteers from various infantry
units was organized by then Major Megh Singh of the Brigade of the Guards. The unit performed
well in combat, and the Government authorized the formal raising of a commando
unit. Lt Col Megh
Singh was selected to raise the unit which was originally
intended to be a part of the Brigade of the Guards. However, recognizing
parachute qualification as an integral element of special operations, the unit
was transferred to the Parachute Regiment and raised as its
9th Battalion (Commando) on 1 July 1966. The erstwhile members of the Meghdoot
Force formed the nucleus, and the new unit was based in Gwalior.
In June 1967 the unit was split equally into two to form a second commando
unit, designated as 10th Battalion, each with three Companies. 10th Battalion
was mandated to operate in the Western Desert and 9th Battalion in the northern mountains. In 1969,
these battalions were re-designated as 9 and 10 Para (Commando) battalions.
In 1978, the 1 Para, as an experiment, was
converted to become the first special forces unit of the Indian army, and was
kept as the tactical reserve. Already a recipient of the Chief of Army Staff
Unit Citation twice, and the GOC-in-C Eastern Command Unit Citation
once, the unit was originally 1 Punjab, which was later re-designated as 1 PARA
(PUNJAB) and in 1978 was converted to 1 PARA (SF).
On 15 January 1992, the Parachute Regiment
Training Centre along with the Records and PAO(OR), and the Para Regiment,
moved to Bangalore and occupied the erstwhile location of Pioneer Corps and
Training Centre. Bangalore is the new Key Location Project of the Centre.
1995 saw the formation of the fourth
commando battalion when 21 Maratha Light Infantry was selected to
convert to special forces and slated for the Eastern Command. After a stringent
selection and training process that spanned more than a year, on 1 February
1996, the unit under Colonel VB Shinde, was formally inducted as the 21st
Battalion (Special Forces), The Parachute Regiment. The unit has done well in
its short lifespan and is the proud recipient of the Chief of Army Staff Unit
Citation twice (1992 and 2006) and the GOC-in-C Eastern Command Unit Citation
once (2008), as well as a host of individual gallantry awards. With the
changing scenario in military operations and the need for more special forces
units, 2 Para began the conversion process from parachute to special forces
role, followed closely by the 3 Para and the 4 Para in the year 2004 and 2005.
The attempt did see some success, but the reason it failed to achieve its goal
was due to the stringent selection process.
Operation Cactus 1988, Maldives
With the capture of Maldives,
an island nation off the south western coast of India, on 3 November 1988 by
the People's Liberation Organisation
of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) mercenaries,
the army turned to the 50 (Independent) Parachute Brigade to carry out an
airborne/air transported operation to liberate the country and return power to
the legal government. This operation had 6 PARA spearheading the mission. 6
Para flew in on 4 November 1988 in a fleet of IL-76, An-32 and An-12 transport
aircraft. One team rescued the president, another took over the airfield, and a
third rescued Maldivian security personnel besieged in the National Security Service HQ.
Later 7 Para and part of 17 Para Field Regiment were also deployed to the
Maldives. When mercenaries tried to escape by sea along with hostages, they
were intercepted by the Indian Navy. Thus, 6 Para, and the 17 Para Field
Regiment conducted the first-ever international intervention by
the Indian army without
any loss of life.
1999 Kargil War
In 1999 nine out of ten Parachute
battalions were deployed for Operation Vijay in Kargil, which bears testimony
to the operational profile of the Regiment. While the Parachute Brigade cleared
the Mushkoh Valley intrusions, 5 PARA was actively involved in the forgotten
sector of Batalik, and was awarded the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Unit
Citation.
Operation Khukri 2000, Sierra Leone
Operation Khukri was a rescue mission
conducted by the 2 PARA (SF) in Sierra Leone in June 2000. About 90 operators
commanded by Major (now Lt. Col.) Harinder Sood were airlifted from New Delhi
to spearhead the mission to rescue 223 men of the 5/8 Gurkha Rifles who were surrounded
and held captive by Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels for over
75 days. Just 90 Para (SF) forced 2000-5000 members of the Revolutionary United
Front (RUF) divided into 5 battalions to surrender. This ultimately led to the
liberation of Freetown.
Operation Summer
Storm 2009
On 11 April 2009, the 57 Mountain Division
of the Indian Army based in Manipur, Para Commandos along with the
para-military Assam Rifles and State Police, launched a counter insurgency
operation, code-named "Operation Summer Storm" in the Loktak Lake
region and adjoining Loktak Lake in Bishnupur District, located south
of State capital of Imphal. The first major mobilization of troops in 2009 ended
on 21 April. As the troops began pulling out, an Army spokesperson described
the operation as a success, disclosing that 129 militants, all belonging to
the People's Revolutionary Part of Kangleipak (PREPAK) were killed.
The Forces also claimed to have located and destroyed five militant camps
during the Operation and more than 117 weapons, including sixty nine AK-series
rifles, forty-eight rocket launchers, and an unspecified quantity of explosives
and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). No militant was arrested. No
fatalities among the Special Force (SF) personnel or civilians was reported.
Ongoing
counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir and in northeastern India
Paratroopers and Para (SF)
have conducted thousands of counter-insurgency (COIN) operations in
Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and the eastern states in India. Sometimes these units
work with the Rashtriya Rifles (COIN force) in
complicated operations. Since the mid-1990s, the role of Paratroopers and Para
(SF) as a counter terrorism force has increased substantially. They are now
actively involved in counter terrorist (CT) and COIN operations in Kashmir as
an essential part of the Home Ministry's decision to conduct pro-active raids
against militants in the countryside and mountains. Personnel include Para
(SF), Paratroopers (Airborne), National Security Guards (NSG) and
special units of the Rashtriya Rifles - a paramilitary unit created
for counter insurgency operations in Kashmir. They may also include MARCOS personnel,
many of whom are seconded to the Army for
CT operations.
Counter-terrorist
operation in Samba
On 26 September 2013, terrorists dressed in
Army fatigues stormed a police station and then an Army camp in the Jammu
region killing 10 people, including an Army officer, in twin fidayeen attacks.
The terrorists sneaked across the border early on Thursday, barely three days
ahead of a meeting between the prime ministers of India and Pakistan. The
attack was on a police station. The 16 Cavalry unit of the Army in Samba
district falls under the jurisdiction of 9 corps, headquartered at Yol
Cantonment in Himachal Pradesh. The three heavily armed terrorists, believed to
be from the group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), were holed up in the cavalry
armored unit's camp at Samba for several hours after they barged into the
Officers mess, until they were killed during a fierce gunfight with 1 Para (SF)
of the army. The bodies of the three terrorists aged between 16 and 19 were in
the custody of the Army.
Authorities moved commandos of 1 Para (SF)
in helicopters to the shootout site. The Para (SF) commandos first carried out
an aerial reconnaissance of the camp before landing to neutralize the three
terrorists. The 1 Para (SF) had identified the exact spot during the aerial
reconnaissance from where the intruders were returning the army fire. After
landing, the commandos started engaging the terrorists in a direct gunfight,
but in order to give them an impression that their exact hiding location had
still not been identified, an abandoned building inside the camp was blasted.
This made the terrorists complacent thinking that their hiding spot had not
been yet been pin-pointed. They kept on intermittently returning army fire
until all three of them were eliminated. The entire operation, from the moment
the terrorists entered the camp until they were gunned down, took nearly nine
hours to complete. The main worry of the soldiers tasked to eliminate the
terrorists was the Army Public School situated some distance from the place
where the terrorists had been engaged in a sustained firefight. Army men were
worried about the possibility of the terrorists moving into the school and
taking children and staff as hostage. For this reason, the operation to
eliminate the terrorists was carried out with extreme caution and patience
Counter
insurgency operation in Myanmar 2015
Based on precise
intelligence inputs, the Indian Air Force and 21 para (SF) carried a
cross-border operation along the Indo-Myanmar border and destroyed two militant
camps one each of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (K)
(NSCN) and the Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL). The operations were
carried out inside Myanmar territory along the Nagaland and Manipur border
at two locations. One of the locations was near Ukhrul in Manipur. The army
attacked two militants' transit camps.
70 commandos were reportedly involved in
the operation. The commandos, equipped with assault rifles, rocket launchers,
grenades and night vision goggles, were divided into two groups after they fast
roped from Dhruv helicopters just inside the Indian territory near
the border with Myanmar. The teams trekked through the thick jungles for at
least 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) before they reached training camps. Each of the
teams was further divided into two sub-groups. While one was responsible for
the direct assault, the second formed an outer ring to prevent any of
insurgents from running and escaping. The actual operation (hitting the camp
and destroying it) took about 40 minutes. Indian Air Force Mil Mi-17 helicopters
were put on standby, ready to be pressed into service to evacuate the commandos
in case anything went wrong. In its statement after the operation, the Indian
Army said it was in communication with Myanmar and that, "There is a
history of close cooperation between our two militaries. We look forward to
working with them to combat such terrorism.”
The Indian Army claimed to have inflicted
heavy casualties (158 reported) on the attackers behind the ambush of the
Army on 4 June, which claimed the lives of 18 Army jawans (soldiers) of 6 Dogra
Regiment from the Chandel district of Manipur. This has been noted as the
largest attack on the Indian Army after the Kargil war of 1999.
Surgical strikes
in Pakistan-administered Kashmir
On 29 September 2016, India attacked the strike targeted
areas close to the Line of Control (LoC), where militants congregate
for their final briefings before sneaking across it into India. An Indian
security source said the operation began with Indian forces firing artillery
across the frontier to provide cover for three to four teams of 70–80 para SF
commandos from 4 and 9 Para (Special Forces) to cross the LoC at several points
shortly after midnight IST on 29 September (18:30 hours UTC, 28 Sept.). Teams
from 4 Para SF crossed the LoC in the Nowgam sector of Kupwara district,
with teams from 9 Para SF simultaneously crossing the LoC in Poonch
district. By 2 a.m. IST, according to army sources, the special forces
teams had travelled 1 km (0.62 mi) - 3 km (1.9 mi) on foot,
and had begun destroying the terrorist bases with hand-held grenade and
84 mm rocket launchers. The teams then swiftly returned to the Indian side
of the LoC, suffering only one injury, a soldier wounded after tripping a land
mine.
The Indian army said the
strike was a pre-emptive attack on the militants' bases, claiming
that it had received intelligence that the militants were planning
"terrorist strikes" against India. India said that, in
destroying "terrorist infrastructure" it also attacked "those
who are trying to support them," indicating it also attacked Pakistani
soldiers. India later briefed opposition parties and foreign envoys, but
did not disclose operational details. The footage from the strike captured
by overhead drones and thermal imaging was released to the media afterwards. It
was also informed that around 40-50 militants were killed and many more injured
in one of the surgical strikes. However, the Pakistan army dismissed
India's claim, and instead claimed that Indian troops had not crossed the LoC
but had only skirmished with Pakistani troops at the border, resulting in the
deaths of two Pakistani soldiers and the wounding of nine.
Organisation
The Parachute Regiment
presently has nine Special Forces, five Airborne, two Territorial Army and one
Counter-Insurgency (Rashtriya Rifles) battalions in its fold. The regiment has
tried raising new battalions to augment the strength of the special forces
however the task has not been completed due to the tough selection phase.
Furthermore, in the absence of a centralized command and lack of a centralized
and standardized procedure for selection, even among the Para (SF) battalions, selection
procedures vary. Meaning there is a different standard to get into different
Para (SF) battalions.
In the mid-1980s, there were plans to take
the three para commando battalions from the Parachute Regiment and bring them
together under an individual specialized organisation, the Special Forces
Regiment. However, after several logistic and administrative obstacles, these
plans were abandoned, and they continue to be trained and recruited by the
Parachute Regiment.
Para (SF) operate in assault teams, which
work individually behind enemy lines, whereas the Paratroopers (Airborne) work
in large teams and coordinate with other units as their role involves occupying
large areas behind enemy lines. The total strength of the regiment stands at
about 10,000, this includes five airborne infantry battalions, one Rashtriya
Rifles and two Territorial Army battalion personnel, while the Para (SF)
includes between 5,000 and 6,000 personnel. They have to hide their identity
from general public.
The Special Group, a confidential
special forces unit of the Research and Analysis Wing, recruits soldiers
from the Para SF.
Functions
·
Intelligence
collection, special reconnaissance
·
sabotage of
vital enemy infrastructure and communications through deep penetration and
surgical strikes behind enemy lines.
·
Covert
and overt/direct action special operations as part of the Indian Army's
counter-terrorist and counter-insurgency operations.
·
Hostage
rescue operations within and beyond Indian territory.
The unit is tasked with missions such as special operations, direct action, hostage rescue, counter-terrorism, special reconnaissance, foreign internal defense, counter-proliferation, counter-insurgency, seek and destroy and personnel recovery.
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